Forget Fully Homemade: Apple Strudel Is Way Less Effort With This Frozen Shortcut

As the days begin to get shorter and we round the corner into the fall season, it's finally time to get excited about all your favorite fall flavors like pumpkin spice, cinnamon brown sugar, and all things apple. While you could spend hours toiling over a perfect pumpkin cheesecake or making an apple pie with dough made from scratch, thankfully a delicious autumn-appropriate dessert doesn't have to extract a large chunk of your time (and your patience) from the day. Out of all the fall desserts to make your autumn days sweeter, making a fresh apple strudel with frozen puff pastry instead of a homemade dough might just the the easiest shortcut around.

A proper homemade puff pastry dough can take hours and a whole lot of elbow grease to make on your own, and even the best bakers can sometimes be disappointed by their puff pastry doughs after all that work. By using store-bought frozen puff pastry, you'll save yourself both time and peace of mind in your next apple strudel endeavor. Using a pre-made puff pastry allows you to focus on making the filling and completing the actual baking process. Even more importantly, it leaves you more free time to relax and enjoy your freshly-baked strudel. Choose one of our top-rated brands of store-bought puff pastry to get the best and most consistent results. 

If you're hesitant to make the swap to store-bought puff pastry because you think it may be inferior compared to a homemade product, fear not. Even the pastry queen herself Prue Leith has no problem using the frozen shortcut. One of the most important things to remember about working with frozen puff pastry is that you need to give it adequate time to thaw before attempting to work with it. Ideally, you'd remove the package of puff pastry from your freezer the night before (or at least four hours before) and let it slowly defrost overnight in the refrigerator, which is the most gentle form of thawing. Lightly use a rolling pin on the thawed pastry dough to stretch it to size. 

If the puff pastry hasn't thawed completely, it could rip or tear as you unfold it. A tear is difficult to patch back up and could lead to leaks in your pastry when baking. Like all fat or butter-based doughs, it's important to keep ingredients cold so the fat doesn't begin to melt. If you choose to thaw your puff pastry on the countertop at room temperature, be sure to return it to the refrigerator for a while before working with it so that the fat can chill back down to the proper state. Whichever thawing method you choose, once the store-bought puff pastry is fully thawed but still well-chilled, use it in our simple apple strudel recipe.